More pics

No time to post, so here are pics! Marissa's birthday party courtesy of LL's mom and dad.

This was cute because she was past her nap time and got a bunny as a gift. She immediately jammed her fingers in her mouth in preparation of sleeping. 

Dad is also having a birthday, Saturday actually, and so I got a few gifts as well. Marissa needed to check them out!

My folks.

Auntie Lori.

Aunt Bee.

Marissa LOVED the noisemakers. Sooooo excited. 

Studio shot one.

Studio shot two.

When LL and I were headed to the Hawks game.

Just love this devilish look. WHAT am I going to get into next.....bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!

Happy Birthday Marissa!

It's late, so just pictures for now. Note to self: don't have Marissa open gifts first thing in the morning and she's not a big fan of cake. Interesting.....

She loves her balloon and in this cake picture I think is asking for "more" already through sign language. She didn't want "more" though. 

Looking a little tired with the bright flash.

Much happier moment from the day before.

Eating time is usually happy time!

I think she's pointing to herself saying "Me" which is what she does if you call out Marissa. Very cute.

Congratulations Joisey Ken!!!

Joisey Ken welcomed his second daughter into the world this morning! She's 7 lbs 4 ozs and almost 20" long. No name selected at the time of this writing, but come back for updates. All are doing well, but since it was another c-section, wife Dawn will be in the hospital a few days at least. Ken is now surrounded by women in the house...including their dog!!!

Okay, back to Marissa

Our little angel turns one in a week so it's probably time to start celebrating her. Actually, we celebrate her pretty much every day, but she makes it easy as she seems to do something adorable or learns something new every day. She really has "no" and "yes" and "more" (in sign language as well) down pat. The other morning I was pushing her around on her stuffed panda scooter and when I stopped she both said "more" and made the sign for more. Very cute.

In addition to words, she getting very good at animal noises as evidenced by this video (you may need to turn your sound up):

I tell ya, it's heard to not get super excited when I hear her responding like she does. Last night, after she went to bed, she started crying more than normal. When that happens, one of us will go in to console her, calm her down and put her back to bed. She's been sleeping through the night, so it seems to work well now. So I went in last night and she sees me coming through the door and she drops from a standing position in the crib to her tummy while crying "NO!" It was very cute, despite the clear indication that she wanted her mama. Anyway, I picked her up, calmed her down while we rocked in the chair (which really only takes a minute) and rocked a little longer to get her sleepy again. She went right down and was good for the rest of the night. Still, not the best welcoming for her ol'man. 

Laura snapped this picture of her as she was frustrated about getting her flashlight to work the way she wanted. So cute. Oh and she now says "Doh!" with great regularity. Thanks to dad for that one!

My favorite tree

There are so many Marissa topics to post about, but I'm taking a break to mention my favorite tree. I've included a picture below, so go ahead and check it out. Not much to look at when you think of the grandiose trees that line my street, fill the nearby parks and line the lake front. Nope, nothing too spectacular about it's size. It's also not a very pretty tree as you can clearly see (that was sort of Dr. Seuss-like), but it is winter after all and trees rarely look good in the winter. This one doesn't look all that great in the spring, summer or fall though either.

It's odd in a way, that I should even have a favorite tree, seeing as I'm allergic to them (as well as grass, mold, dust, dander, mites, horse hair and many other things). But I do have a favorite tree and this one is it. It's not near my house, which you think it would be, seeing as it's my favorite and all. But no, I have to drive there to see it....or more appropriately, hear it.

Yes, my favorite tree makes a noise. Actually, it makes noises while all other trees around don't. In the middle of winter, and all winter, as you can see in the picture, it has dead leaves still attached. No matter the wind gusts or snow accumulations or cold temps, my favorite tree clings to its leaves. But that hardly makes it extraordinary now does it? Many trees have leaves all winter. Well, maybe not many, but certainly some.

My favorite tree though happens to not only be one of those with leaves, but is also a tree I pass frequently in winter. Well, not as frequently as I would like truth be told, but often enough I guess. It's around the corner from my gym. In the summer I usually ride my bike and then don't pass the tree. But in winter, I drive the mile or so distance and usually park down the street from the tree, which is why I walk past it.

But I don't just walk past it, at least anymore. I stop underneath it for at least a few seconds, depending on just how cold it is. Even on the stillest of days, the leaves will rustle and take me back to the nicer days of the other seasons when all trees have leaves. Yes, my favorite tree with its dead, brown leaves, provides me a slight respite from the winter that surrounds it and me in that moment.

On top of all that, I then proceed to the gym to workout which for me, is a labor of love. My favorite tree reminds me of the good things to come.

Marissa, Bears and a Cherry Picker

Life continues to be busy and promises to only get busier this summer. On top of my consulting work has been 4 more days of continuing education for real estate, several evening meetings and office training for real estate as well as actually helping some folks do some research on homes. It's all good, but very busy. Real estate will only get busier as the weather turns nicer (if it turns nicer!) and softball will be thrown in there as well. Don't forget spending time with LL and sweet Marissa. Oh, and our vacation to Puerto Rico is coming up at the end of March. There's a lot of stuff going on!

Marissa does or learns something new every day now. The other day she crawled across the room to where I was standing, pulled her self up on my leg, looked up at me and said "Up!" It was the cutest thing ever. She's getting better and animal noises and her repertoire now includes: dog, owl, snake, turtle, lion, sheep and monkey. I think that's all. She continues to eat well consuming everything from spinach and broccoli to yogurt to Cheerios to chicken. She's an equal opportunity eater. She now walks behind a little mower-like thing as well. See video:

Modeling her spring collection.

On the sad news side of things, I had my last Bears Season Ticket Holder Advisory Group meeting. The group meets six times a year and provides feedback to the Bears on everything from game day operations to marketing pieces. It's good fun, but your term only lasts two years. 

Newly remodeled Halas Hall. 

Yes, welcome us!

A typical breakout session; 8-10 of us around a table talking.

Our parting gift: a personalized game ball. That's going in the trophy case!

My last picture...which happens to be on the site of where I slipped and fell about a month earlier. Ha!

 ESDNM came into town to call on our clients last week. Though we've had a horrible winter, when he landed it was 48 degrees!! It literally had snowed 6 inches the night and morning of the day he arrived. The next day, more melting and more 40's. Then he left town in the rain and the cold moved in shortly thereafter. Here's a link to the restaurant we tried called Carriage House. Pretty good food. Not all was easy-peasy though. This cherry picker broke down and blocked our exit from my parking spot. We had to do our first meeting via conference call.  Later, I was able to go over a snow bank that the contractors shoveled out for cars to get by. It was a little strange.

I'm still here!!

Been very busy and there are many things to catch up on. This past week I had four days of continuing education classes for real estate which were mandatory. 8+hours a day complete with the train commute. Oh, and did I mention it was cold? Ugh.

Anyway, we did get to see ESDNM's daughter AinA for dinner while she was in town on Thursday. That was fun, though a much shorter visit than any of us would have liked I'm sure.

Marissa turned 11 months the other day and actually took two whole steps as she walked from LL to me. Pretty awesome.

Speaking of Marissa:

What kind of trouble will I get into when I can walk anywhere I want??

And lunge 2, 3, 4 and point.

This is my "Blue Steel" (look it up if you don't get the reference).

Picture time

Update on the rash: it's mostly gone. I've cut Splenda out of my diet, whether there's a correlation or not, we'll probably see at some point. But for now, the crazy rash is gone.

We were invited by one of my new co-workers in real estate to attend Donut Fest. Haven't heard of Donut Fest? Me neither. It's exactly what you would think though: purveyors of donuts and those that like to consume them. You get a ticket to sample each of the offerings, but only one per. It ended up being an interesting time not just because who doesn't love donuts, but because you actually have to manage your intake somewhat. Now they had it at 9:00 a.m. so you should be plenty hungry, but boy are the donuts filling. Some places, like the first one pictured, had mini donuts that were fairly substantial. Other places offered quarter donuts or even smaller. Still, with about 25 or more offerings, you're downing about 10 donuts minimum. It was awesome. But, if you took a bite of a donut and thought "Meh.", you would throw it out!! You had too! If you didn't, you wouldn't have enough room for all the good donuts.

These raspberry iced donuts looked better than they tasted sadly.

These were cherry iced with chocolate shards I think. Also not great, but looked awesome.

One of my favorites: mini long-johns with chocolate icing and bacon on top. Yum! Not as good as their version with maple icing though. I was not complaining however. 

I can't remember which donuts these were.....

Here's a picture of the event. Decent size. 

We finally got a new entertainment center. One of the many good things about sweet little Marissa, is that she gets into anything she can reach now. That meant the old, open air entertainment system was going to get destroyed or worse, cause her injury. So we went online, found this bad boy on Amazon and two days later it was at my door waiting to be assembled. The next day I put it together and BAM! All good. The other one was over 20 years old! 

Little Marissa getting ready for lunch with LL on LL's birthday Friday!

We went out for dinner for sushi at Rollapalooza, our favorite sushi place with the owners, Eric and Minnie. They were there and we had a nice visit. Turns out Minnie's birthday was the day before so she joined us for some wine in celebration (it's byob). Marissa here is fake smiling as she prepares for the flash.

Fake smiling again with the flash.

There she is all normal again! 

So Marissa now fake smiles, fake cries and fake laughs. All are pretty funny. She eats all sorts of food from eggs to yogurt to chicken to broccoli to pork to apple sauce. She's got a bunch of teeth with molars coming in as of late.  Though not walking yet, we feel that could happen any day now. She definitely gets around. She's also good at imitating animals: lions, dogs, snake, sheep and now monkeys in addition to a turtle (eating). All keep us in hysterics.